"Garden Struggle" in The Villager

So much information packed into a short article about the struggle for the life of the WSV Sasaki Garden!

Meanwhile, though we know intense negotiations between all parties are currently ongoing, we asked Councilmember Margaret Chin for an official statement on N.Y.U. 2031. Her position will be critical when the Council takes its vote in mid-July. From the sound of it, she’s hearing what the community is saying — and feels that residents’ concerns “come first.” “Right now, I am focused on bringing the best possible proposal in front of the Council,” Chin told us. “This is a give-and-take process, and N.Y.U. needs to modify their proposal. I have made it known that the amount of density that has been proposed is out of scale with the surrounding community. I want a plan that residents can live with first, and that N.Y.U. can live with second.”

Read the entire article at http://www.thevillager.com/?p=5887.

Photos of Hideo Sasaki

Hideo Sasaki's nephew, Ralph Swain, has generously shared several photographs of this uncle with Save the WSV Sasaki Garden.  We share them with you below.

Reason #1 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #1:


The Garden is nature in the city.  It is nearby nature for  Washington Square Village (WSV) and community kids.  Children regularly use the garden, in addition to adults.  "Direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults" argues Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder.  The Garden provides opportunities for more imaginative and unstructured play in contrast to formal playgrounds.  It is the backyard for so many children.  Children find bugs, watch birds, chase squirrels, track chipmunks (a chipmunk was sighted by two different people this spring), gaze at butterflies and bees, climb trees, imagine bear dens and pirate forts in the shrubs, stage performances on the concrete platforms under the dogwood and roses, run though the leaves in the fall, pretend the fallen crabapple petals are snowflakes, and more.

Reason #2 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #2:

At 1.5 acres or 65,340 square feet, the Garden provides significant open space in the neighborhood. The Garden is publicly accessible open space in a district -- Community Board 2 -- with "one of the lowest percentages of open space in Manhattan," according to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's testimony to the City Planning Commission.  Community Board 2 has the second lowest

Reason #3 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #3:

The Garden is more than a garden.  It is a green roof.  It is one of the first green roofs over a parking structure in the U.S. (see DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State and The Cultural Landscape Foundation).  Green roof installation is a water quality improvement strategy of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC sustainability plan. The City has established a Green Roof Tax Abatement for the private

Reason #4 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #4:

The Garden was completed in 1959 by the landscape architecture firm of Sasaki, Walker and Associates (more about the landscape architecture later).  It is a landmark site.  It is a historic landscape.  It is a significant example of Modernist design.

Reason #5 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #5:

The Garden is a wildlife habitat.  It provides food, water, space (territory), and shelter for birds, butterflies, squirrels, bees and other insects.  Numerous bird species use the Garden. Twelve species of birds have been photographed by Hubert J. Steed including Northern Cardinal, Mockingbird, Thrasher, Catbird, Mourning Dove, Pigeon, American Robin, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hermit Thrush, Sparrow (House & White-throated) and European Starling.

Reason #6 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #6:

The Garden is home to approximately 13 species of trees totaling 69 individual trees.  There are also numerous shrubs and herbaceous perennials thriving in the Garden.  These numbers do not account for all the vegetation growing in the courtyard of Washington Square Village.  There are 24 trees in the Key Park playground, 45 trees between the eastern edge of the Garden and Key Park, and 36 trees between the
 

Reason #7 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #7:


Last time we wrote about the psychological benefits of the Garden, but the Garden also provides physical comfort (i.e. shade) and reduces the urban heat island effect.  The Garden is a "shady haven" (Spirn, 1984) in the summer.

Reason #8 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #8:

The Garden contributes to our mental well-being.  Passive (looking out at, being still in) and active (children's play or Qi Gong) recreation  in the garden are therapeutic.

Reason #9 to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #9:

The Garden is the defining feature of Washington Square Village, a successful example of tower-in-the-park residential development model first developed by Le Corbusier in the 1920s.  Tower-in-the-park architecture is no longer en vogue among architects and planners.

Top 10 Reasons to Save the WSV Sasaki Garden

The top 10 reasons to save the WSV Sasaki Garden in 10 parts.

Reason #10:

The NYU 20-Year Expansion Plan contradicts the goals laid forth by Mayor Bloomberg and various city agencies in the form of PlaNYC, Million Trees NYC,  and NYC Green Infrastructure Plan.

Washington Square Village Sasaki Garden Plants

London planetrees

November is a lovely time to visit our garden, when the plants are wearing and shedding their ever-changing autumn shades.